Tumblr’s mobile app now offers blog editing

Blogging platform Tumblr has had a working mobile app for the last five years, but until now it’s been missing a glaring portion of the platform’s experience: While users could post, reply and comment on their blogs, there was no way to create or edit the blogs themselves. On Tuesday, however, Tumblr announced a new update to its mobile app that now includes a baked-in editor for users to tweak their layouts.

Available in the update for both iOS and Android, the editor gives users the ability to edit the theme of their blogs — adding new photos and colors as well as manipulating the layout. Tumblr Creative Director Peter Vidani told me that the editor is very close to a WYSIWYG-style interface — users will be able to manipulate and control the different aspects of their blog within a live preview.

“You have a theme you’ve made on the phone, it not only carries it to other phones, but it’ll be incorporated into the dashboard,” Vidani said.

Instead of spinning out the editor into its own app, Vidani said that the company chose to keep the Tumblr experience all in one place for simplicity: “Keeping all these things together in one package was important to us. If you download Tumblr for your phone, for iOS or Android, everyone should have the same exact experience.”

While the ability to edit on the fly might only appeal to a small subset of users, porting the design experience to mobile could potentially help the app gain a stronger international presence. By offering the full Tumblr experience on mobile, the company now has the potential to reach more mobile-first or mobile-preferred audiences across the globe. And growth is key, especially as the company searches for a path to consistent revenue.